A Good Cop turns Dark
by Nature9000
Summary: With the war against the police pushing rioters further over the edge, it seems there's nothing they won't do. David has done his best to ignore this, and knows he is one of the good officers still willing to serve. Things change dramatically when the riots hit close to home. Now he is a man with nothing to lose and a statement aimed at those he finds responsible for the chaos.


A Good Cop Turns Dark

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: So this is a controversial oneshot for me. Try to read this with an open mind, because it's inspired by all the crap that's going on in current events. I'm not going to waste a lot of words here, I'm just going to get right into it. Read and enjoy, but also read with an open mind.

So yes, this is a bit dark, bear that in mind.

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><p>-YOU WANTED SENSATIONALISM-<p>

Her scent still lingered on him from the week before, a last reminder of a beautiful smile and sweet laugh. He dared not wash this garb, for fear that he would lose her forever.

What started out as a family night out quickly shifted to horror, but the attack had not been random.

_"Trina!" Tori's horrified voice was the first to be heard upon entering their home. She left the restaurant because she forgot her purse, but when she never returned home, the family cut their night out short._

David wasn't the only good cop left in the world, and he certainly wouldn't be the last, but his thoughts were bathed in the shadows as he carried his uniform towards his close friend, and Police Chief's office.

Atop his uniform was his standard-issue glock, and his golden badge denoting him as a Captain on the police force. For nearly thirty years, he laid down his life for justice, doing everything in his power to help those in need, but now those that he spent his life protecting turned on him.

He didn't blame them. Not the looters nor the rioters.

This towering man stopped beside the workroom television, which was turned onto a national news media, highlighting yet another case of police brutality. A sneer spread across his face as he studied the reporter: A tall sharp-dressed man with a neat comb-over and sparkling white smile. This man was telling people to "stand up" to the police, to tear them down a peg, and was debating whether or not all police were corrupt and filled with hatred.

In his heart he wanted to scream out, but if he so much as opened his mouth, he would break down and cry. It took up all his strength to so much as muster a step, and that was more than he could say of his family.

They were changing now. Tori would hardly speak to her friends, and openly cussed out Andre-despite his having nothing to do with what took place. David understood she just wanted someone to take this out on, a scapegoat, and her friends were the ones to bear the brunt of her grief.

Holly was alive, but dead. Each time David looked at her, she had a distant look in her red, puffy eyes. Her lips trembled and cheeks had been stained by the last tears she'd been able to cry. For the week that had passed, she remained seated on the couch, staring at the stain left behind by the pool of blood before her.

_"I'll be back soon." Trina hugged David from behind, her perfume and shampoo mixed in with his clothes while he tried to take a bite of his steak. "I just need to go back and get my purse, and a few other things from the house. Don't worry about me."_

_ As time passed, his nervousness only increased. Their plans for seeing a movie as a family after dinner was almost shot at this point. "It's been an hour," Tori said while fidgeting with her cell phone, "Trina's not answering."_

_ They paid for their meal and drove home, all three had grown immensely concerned for their daughter. His stomach felt empty despite the food he'd eaten, and despair clung to him like a demon sinking its claws into his body._

_ What they found when they made their way to the house was a grisly sight. Their windows had been shattered, the door was ajar, and someone spray painted the words "Cop = pig" in large letters on the face of his home. His heart stopped momentarily and sensing danger, he raised his hand up to stop Tori as she bolted from the car._

_ That's when he heard the blood-curdling cry of his young daughter screaming into the sky. "Trina!" Holly's eyes grew large and she bolted from the car next, but David was quick on her heels. His heartbeat was moving faster than the cars at a racetrack, and his legs ran as fast as they could carry him._

_ Just as he saw Holly collapse to her knees, he leapt past her, then his entire world shattered._

_ His eldest daughter was lying face up on a pool of blood. Her eyes were open and staring up at the ceiling, and her mouth had been pulled into a mask of terror. Her dress had been hiked up to her waist and her underwear pulled down to her ankles, and at first glance, David could see she had been stabbed multiple times._

_ He stumbled forward, fighting against the urge to vomit, and reached down to an oddly, clean and folded note that lay beside her. When he opened it and read the words, his entire body was engulfed by the fires of rage. _

_ "Justice served, you fucking pig cop. Your daughter was a nice treat. Maybe now you'll think twice about killing an innocent kid, we'll come back for your other daughter if you do."_

The streets were dangerous now-unlawful-with looters and rioters around every corner. He knew they were getting out of hand, but underestimated just how far off the deep end things had become. "I should have gone back with her. I should have told her to stay at the restaurant…"

His voice broke as tears fell from his angry eyes. As he pulled them off the reporter on the television, a violent scoff left his lips. "Where's the coverage on my daughter's murder? I've never killed anyone that wasn't shooting at me…" In all of his years on the force, he'd only had to take three lives, and they were all legit.

The first time was during an armed robbery in which there had already been one victim: The cashier. The second time was during which a criminal had grown belligerent, stolen an officer's gun, and had already fired two shots at him.

Every life he had to take was devastating, and sat with him even today.

Cop-hating had become so commonplace that now people were _joking_ about the shit. Even Andre, though he was being playful, did a "hands up" gesture with him once. Tori quickly told him it offended her, and he apologized.

As he continued his approach to the Chief's office, he could see his fellow coworkers eyeballing them. Each person had a look of pity scrawled on their face, but every sympathetic or pitiful look destroyed him even more.

He kicked open the door and saw his friend's eyes fly to him. "Mike, I'm done." Chief Michael stood from his desk and brought his hands to his hips. His eyes fell onto the folded uniform and badge, then his face dropped. "I can't protect them anymore." David's voice quaked with anger and dripped with a spiciness that he'd never before spoke with. "I can't protect those bastards anymore."

"You're leaving the force. Will you not reconsider?" Michael walked around the desk and looked into David's eyes. "We _need_ good officers like you. You're a good cop. The rioting? It'll pass, people will acknowledge that they need the police eventually, that they need justice-"

"Justice? I'm not even white. Those rioters don't care who they shit on if it's a police officer." He threw his uniform down on the desk and Michael took a step back as David's voice began to rise. "Where the hell was 'justice' for my daughter?" He threw his finger out the door and narrowed his eyes. "When those fuckers broke into my home and killed my little girl, where was justice? There wasn't even media coverage. No-they're too busy slamming every officer that walks the halls! Our name doesn't even mean anything in America anymore."

"David. You're not thinking rationally. Just…look, I said you can take time off, but please don't resign."

"Oh I'm done…I'm sorry Mike. I…" Tears welled up in his eyes and he turned his back to the man that had been his friend for nearly twenty years. When he looked out the door, every officer and secretary in the building was watching him. "I need to go."

An urgent text message came from Andre, asking David to hurry to his home. The boy said in his text he was also calling 9-1-1, but didn't know what to do. Horrified by the urgent tone, David rushed to the house to find another crime scene.

Andre was standing in the doorway, whimpering at the scene. "I-I just got here," he pleaded. There was an honest click in his voice, but David wasn't paying attention to anything the boy said. "They were like this."

David pushed Andre to the side and entered his house. His hand grasped the doorknob tightly and the pounding of his heart ceased as his lungs deflated like popped balloons.

Holly was lying on the couch, her hand clutched the tiny handgun that David had once given her for protection, but there was blood oozing from the back of her head.

His muscles began to tense, and the skin around his eyes and lips crinkled as he turned his gaze to his youngest daughter. Tori was on the floor, her throat had been slit, and her pink gown was drenched in blood that had flown downwards-as though she'd been standing when killed.

His heart dropped to his stomach and soon the ground beneath him seemed to shake with a mighty force. It could have been him, but he wasn't certain. "M-Mr. Vega?"

"If you're innocent," David whispered. Any louder and he would break. "Then leave now." The next person who entered his house was most likely to get a bullet or knife to the back of their skull, and he wasn't about to be the next police officer being picked on by the news media for killing some kid. Especially not with the racial profiling that the news media loved so much.

"Mr. Vega?"

"Leave!" He slammed his fist into the door frame and Andre took off running. His free hand moved up over his eyes and he dropped to his knees, weeping bitterly.

It wasn't long before the police found another note addressed to David that said, "Back to finish the job. Not so funny when it's your family, is it little pig?"

Within the next few days, they found the people that committed the crimes. From the first attack, there had been multiple traces of DNA left behind, as well as fingerprints, but no one had been in the system.

It was a group of local college students touting minority rights and advocate support. David never understood this, and he didn't understood why they went after _his _family when he was Latino. If nationality were so important to them, then why could they not have figured that out?

The group had been caught robbing a liquor store, declaring they were entitled and had the right and privilege to the alcohol. In the group, the DNA of two of their members matched the sperm samples taken from the first crime scene, while the finger prints of the third matched up with the prints inside the home.

The fourth member of the group was the one to confess, saying they were all involved. The fourth didn't want to do the crime, he tried to tell the others that it wasn't right, but they didn't listen.

He still participated.

For the next week, he sat on the couch watching the television closely-as it was the only thing that could come close to taking his mind off his loss, even if it didn't manage to succeed in doing that. The media finally covered him, but it was nowhere near what he was would have liked, but at the same time, it was exactly what he expected.

They took advantage of the fact that Andre discovered the bodies, and were now trying to exploit his loss to turn it into some racist statement.

He didn't care anymore, for inside he was dead. His eyes held little life, and his tears would no longer come. Tori's friends tried to help him, they wanted to do something-even tried to do a memorial for his family at the school.

They were shut down by rioters, claiming that a police officer's loss was just a small step in obtaining justice against corrupt cops.

"I'm sorry," Andre said while sitting beside him on the couch. The boy brought his hand to his shoulder and lifted his moist eyes up to David. "I-They were close to me too."

"Close?" His voice was dry and rough, and his throat had become so scratchy that he could hardly speak. "All of you treated Trina like crap." Andre bowed his head and sighed.

"I know." The boy turned his eyes to the television and furrowed his brow. "You hear what they're saying? Apparently some neighbor saw you push me out of the way-you were grieving. Now the media's saying you pushed and threatened me."

"I know that."

"They're wrong. I know you, you're no racist. You're a good cop and you were a good dad."

"I'm not a cop anymore." He sneered at the reporter on the screen. Reporter Richard Pinchot, the same man from before, was laughing at how it seemed that every white cop had it out for some poor black kid. "Funny thing is, you're the one I like." Andre raised an eyebrow and turned his head up.

"What?"

"Out of you, Beck, Robbie, Jade, Cat…I never liked any of them. I thought they were turning my daughter into something she wasn't, teaching her to disrespect her sister and walk all over her family. You? You were okay in my book-you helped her learn a skill…"

His heart broke as he glanced over his shoulder to stare at the silent keys on the piano. "I guess." Andre followed his gaze and sighed. The piano had lost its outer leg and was at an angle, and there was blood spatter that now drenched the musical instrument.

He could still hear its melody in the air, music to his ears that once filled his heart with pride. Some nights he could still hear the sound of Trina practicing her martial arts in the living room. She'd been so proficient, so skilled, and when she was old enough David wanted to take her to the shooting range one day and teach her to shoot a gun properly.

How could four men have done this? He knew Trina once held off Beck, Andre and Robbie all on her own-she was skilled at defending herself.

David closed his hands together and bent his arms upwards. His body hunched forward and he touched his nose to his knuckles, sobbing as the deadly silence filled the room.

Andre rubbed his back, but the gesture was anything but comforting to him. "Andre?" The boy's hand stopped and he let out a single grunt.

"Yeah?"

"Tell your friends…" David's eyes slid towards the television as the images of his wife and daughters flashed before him. He could see their smiling faces, open with laughter, and he could remember the happy days when they would sit around and spend time together as a family.

When the girls were young, he took his family to the beach once a month. Trina would always ride on his shoulders and Tori would run off to the edge of the water, but never daring to enter before her mother called her to her side.

They stopped spending time together as a family when everyone started to grow up and become busy. Tori went to Hollywood Arts and stopped having time for her sister, Trina became obsessed with her martial arts training, and Holly had been taking more calls at the hospital.

It was Holly who suggested they spend a night out for once and start to be a family again. David leapt at the idea, and both girls seemed thrilled, and now they were gone.

They were gone, and the news was attacking _him_.

"I appreciate what they've done." His chest trembled as a single gasping sob erupted from his lips. Andre began to pull his hand from David's back and gave him a look of concern. "Through all this. You and your friends are the only ones…keeping my family's memory."

"They were good people, Mr. Vega. They didn't deserve what happened…"

"Not according to the rioters, not according to the news. They died because I was a cop, because _I_ made the choice to serve and protect. My family was attacked by the very people I pledged my life to _protect_."

"It's the damn news media, Mr. Vega-you know that. It's the media, and the ignorant minds of people who will believe whatever lie they're fed. Now I don't know…whether or not all these other cases they talked about, whether the people involved were innocent or guilty-and I don't care. I know one thing, _you_ were innocent. Mrs. Vega, Tori, Trina-they were innocent."

"They were my life. Everything I did, I did for them."

"It's funny." The reporter's voice broke David's concentration and pulled his attention to the screen. Richard Pinchot had his bright gleaming grin and was straightening his tie. "I'm not saying what happened wasn't _wrong_, but you have to admit, the guy probably had it coming. His family didn't need to die to get a statement across, but I think police officers everywhere got the mess-"

David grabbed the landline on his coffee table and, with a powerful roar, threw the phone into the television screen. "I was a good fucking cop, you prick! My family didn't deserve what happened to them! They didn't need to fucking die because I was a cop."

Andre flinched, then reached back to his back. "Man, wouldn't it be something to just march up to the studio and tell that to the man's face?" David's heart skipped and his eyes darted over to the boy. Andre's eyebrows moved together and he slowly removed his hand, stumbling over his first word. "You do know I'm not being serious though, right? I mean, if you did that…"

"Would the news media have it coming?"

"It's a national station, those reporters are just talking from their asses and safety of a studio. You couldn't actually-"

"No, you're right Andre." He smiled vaguely and turned his head back to the broken screen. He had nothing left to live for, and he wanted to give the people a statement they needed. Andre had an idea that would work, but what could he do? "They'd just paint me as a deranged man who lost it all."

"Yeah-oh…" Andre leaned back slowly and his brow furrowed. David narrowed his eyes at the screen and his lips twisted into a deadly scowl. "No, Mr. Vega-"

"I think it's time for you to go home, Andre."

David knew where the studio was, he'd been there a couple times while investigating homicides and giving statements to the media. This national network was based in the state's capitol.

It didn't take long for him to get there. Security was tight, but he had clearance and was able to bypass them. Most of the security guards there were rookies that just wanted to go home for the day. There were some older guards that likely would have recognized him, but he managed to avoid them and focus on the guards that appeared exhausted.

Amazingly they let him in and did not catch the small gun he'd tucked away in the heel of his shoe. Once he was on site, it didn't take him long to make his way to the door leading to the reporters.

"You can't go in there!" Declared a man with headphones and a clipboard. He ignored the man, then slammed his foot into the door. It swung upon and crashed into the wall, startling everyone inside.

"Keep those cameras rolling," he demanded of the cameramen. To his amazement, the order was unnecessary. For Richard merely smiled and laughed at the camera, stating that this might be good to get on air.

"Look it's the officer we've been talking about. America, say hello to our 'guest', Officer David Vega!" David sneered and approached the desk.

"I am no longer a cop."

Richard frowned at him. The man's hand pat the table and he clicked his tongue at his blonde cohost sitting beside him. "Aw that's too bad, right Diane?" Diane rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. David glanced to the cameramen and producers, all of them seemed disdainful of the man's cocky attitude. "Decided to quit after you bullied that poor black kid? All he did was find the bodie-"

"You shut up, prick." David slammed his fist down on the table, then pointed a finger at the man. Richard jerked back and lifted his hands up slightly. He was grateful the show was running live, and received validation from the television screens behind the camera that were showing him on the channel.

"Let me tell you a little something about Andre Harris. He's one of the best kids my daughters had the chance of knowing before _their lives__were taken_." Richard glanced at the camera, chuckling nervously and closing his fingers. David delighted in seeing some sweat forming on the man's forehead.

He continued his rant, speaking with the strong and firm voice that he once had. "He's the one person that has been trying to console me during the last couple of weeks, and he's the guy that helped push forward a memorial at his school for my daughters."

"Well," Richard straightened his tie and started to say something more when David cut him off.

"You had your chance to speak to the country. All you've done is chat on and on-well you're exploiting a good man, a family friend of mine, and yeah I don't appreciate that. The only person doing any racial profiling here is you, and you're only doing it to stir up shit across the board, causing racism to increase."

David straightened his back and narrowed his eyes at Richard. "You're the one to blame for what happened to my family. My oldest daughter was assaulted sexually and murdered in her home, my wife and youngest daughter were executed by rioters that hated cops and touted 'justice' for minorities—and I'm not even white." He leaned over the desk, slamming his palms into it and spewing out spittle as he shouted at the man. "I'm Latino. My 'people' suffered too, but that's not what I'm here for."

Richard removed a small handkerchief from his jacket and wiped his face, scoffing and huffing angrily.

David turned to face the camera, pointing at it and raising his voice. "And you people? For nearly thirty years I laid down my life to protect the citizens." David brought his hand to his chest and started to chuckle. His anger and hatred was boiling over and the gun in his shoe was beginning to feel heavy.

"The funny thing is, I'm one of the good ones! But you wouldn't know a good cop if he showed up at your door because of people like this." He pointed at Richard and growled. "You think every cop is racist? You think every cop has some underhanded motive? My family was murdered by a group of rioters who, led by people like Mr. Pinchot here, believed all the cop-hating propaganda spread by the media."

"Now officer, I'm sure-"

"I told you, I'm no longer a cop." He turned back to Richard and narrowed his eyes at the man. "You may as well have been the one to put the knife in my daughter. You may as well have pulled the trigger. If _anybody_ is to blame, it's you!"

Richard moved his hands to his chest and laughed. "All I want is what the American people want. Justice."

"Justice?" He reached down and grabbed Richard's tie, pulling the man forward and glaring into his eyes. "Your 'justice' cost me my family." He spoke slowly and plainly, in an attempt to use words this man could understand. "The love of my life and my two girls, gone, because you couldn't stop smearing cops at every angle! My girls could have gone on to do great things with their lives-"

"Yes well." Richard pushed David off him and ran his hands down his tie-straightening out the crumpled fabric. "I wasn't the one that ordered those people to do it."

"You may as well have," Diane muttered. Richard shot a glance at her and Diane shrugged. "I mean the guy has a point, we have been highlighting on more negative cop stories than positive. People react to the negative, but it might do some good to show positive."

It was a relief to hear someone in the media suggesting what Diane was, but it was almost too late for David to hear.

"You keep suggesting we show a good cop story, but Diane, the people don't react to good media." Richard closed his hands and laughed. "The people don't give a shit about positive, they want sensationalism and justice." David snarled and Richard glanced up at him. "I mean hell, no one wants to hear about rioters that slaughtered a good cop's family, they need to hear that a cop treated a black person roughly and got what he deserved. That's how they'll react, and that's how America will change its racial views."

"You're only making things worse, Richard."

"I think not." Richard's eyes drifted to David's and he pulled his hands behind his head. "What do you want, Dave? I'll be honest with you-no one _cares_ about your murdered children or your dead wife. You're just another no good, corrupt cop in the eyes of America right now, so they don't _care_. What they care about, what the media cares about is sensationalism."

David's nostrils flared open and his body began to shake as the ticking time bomb in his head began to explode like a volcano ready to erupt. "Sensationalism, Richard? You want _sensationalism?"_

Richard began to laugh and spread his mouth into a wide, toothy grin. The glare of the reporter's teeth blinded David momentarily. "Sure David. We're on the same page now-it's all about sensationalism. That's all the news media is, we stir things up because we _have_ to."

Without a further word, David grabbed the gun from his shoe then lurched forward. Diane and the others screamed out as David grabbed Richard's tie, pulled him forward, then pressed the nozzle of his gun to Richard's throat.

The reporter closed his eyes and screamed out, the sweat that been mild on the man's face was now pouring out and his neat hair was drenched and sloppy. "Here's what I want, Richard. I want the truth-don't you think the American people deserve the truth? Justice-I want _justice_."

"What do you think you're doing?" Richard growled. "You're proving nothing!"

David's hand shook as he pressed the nozzle into the man's neck with greater force. "I'm giving you what you want: sensationalism. Now you give me what I want, and that's the truth. I want you to tell all the American people out there just why the news media wants to bash the cops-and just why you have to exploit an innocent family friend who has been nothing but supportive over the last couple of weeks, and make it out to seem like I'm racist against him."

"Come on-"

"Do it!" He pressed the gun harder into the man's neck, causing him to cry out in pain. Richard's face grew pale and his eyes shot down to the nozzle.

"Okay! Okay! Jesus." David kept the gun positioned in place and growled vehemently at Richard.

"Just so you know. This gun belonged to my wife." Richard raised an eyebrow at him and huffed out a shaky breath. "I purchased it for her for protection, she was always nervous about people coming after our family because I was a cop-not because of the rioting but because of the criminals I put away."

"Oh."

"She died with this in her hand." He saw Diane's hands fly over her mouth while Richard's body began to tremble further. "Nearly thirty years, I have served to protect citizens and my family. Now both are gone." He pressed his lips together and tears ran down his face as his heart started to crash against his chest. "My baby girls grew up, their one love was seeing the beach once a month and spending time together as a family. I've never been more proud to see them grow, and now, I'll never get to see them go off to college or have families of their own."

"D-David, have the people responsible been caught? I could try to find them for you."

"I don't believe a word you news media people say. I'm certain if this wasn't live right now, you'd cut out everything just to make me look like a monster."

"Now that's just-"

"What? True?" Richard laughed out and pushed his hands along the desk. David rolled his head to the right and narrowed his eyes. "You have no empathy, you care about no one but yourself. I've never taken an innocent life, I've never racially profiled anybody…but how many innocent lives were lost in your name? How many lives were lost because the news media cared only about sensationalizing everything and hiding the truth from the American people?"

"Now-"

"The people who physically killed my family have been caught, Richard. You and the rest of the news media have been exploiting this, and I know you're all trying to get those _assholes_ off easy because I'm a cop."

His voice rose and broke at its peak. "Justice? Do I want justice? I want justice for my wife and my girls, they're dead in _your_ name. In the name of all you media assholes, they're dead!"

He lowered his voice and spoke with a growling tone while holding his glare into Richard's frantic eyes. "Everything I've worked for is in shambles, the people I love are gone, and those I once took an oath to protect are charged with rape and murder."

David pressed the nozzle further into Richard's carotid artery and sucked in a heavy breath through the slits in his teeth. "And all you media people care about is your sensationalism. Besmirching the name of a good man, flaunting your right to free press as an excuse to slander an innocent and justify the deaths of his family. Now, I believe the American people are due a little bit of _truth_ from the nation's news source. Don't you?"

Richard scowled back at him and clenched his teeth together. "Fine." The man's eyes narrowed and he raised his voice as Diane continued to command the cameramen to continue rolling. "You want the truth? I'll _give_ you the truth!" Richard's eyes darted to the camera and his body moved up slightly, then slouched.

"Yes, we omit the truth and facts of a story that we think would be otherwise lackluster if we didn't. The American people are gullible, they'll believe anything, so we have to use that to get ahead. If pushing for less corruption in the police force calls for naming an innocent non-racist officer as a racist that had what he got coming to him…so be it!"

"So you _admit_ to slandering my name?"

"Of course. We're the news, we have to look into everything." Richard laughed anxiously and moved his eyes back to David's. "We know you've got a good standing in the force, and we knew that black boy was one of your daughter's close friends. Still, we saw an opportunity and we jumped for it."

"For the record, I didn't push or threaten Andre. I pushed him out of the way in my grief and rush to get to my family."

"Yes! Yes I know, but do you think the public is going to feed off that? God, a grief-stricken father pushes a guy out of the way so he can run to his family lying dead on the ground. There's no story there-there's nothing. It's certainly not going to cause people to take a stand on racial bias."

"You realize that racism is only growing worse because you people do things like this."

"Okay that might be a downfall, but hey, you have to do what you have to do." Richard cleared his throat and closed his eyes. "We know you're an officer with good merit, good standing. Yes, we exploited your family's tragedy to push ahead our own political agenda. I _am_ sorry for your loss."

The man glanced at the door and David narrowed his eyes. He was pleased with this truth, and he was fairly certain the statement he wanted to be made had gotten across. "By now, Mr. Vega, S.W.A.T officers will have surrounded this place. What you're doing now? It's not good, it's not helping your case. All you look like is another deranged murderer…is that how you want to go out? Is this how you want your family remembered?"

"I told you." He heard a gun click nearby and tilted his head. "I've always been a good cop. I wanted to make a statement, to get you to acknowledge that the media has been stirring up trouble for the sake of stirring up trouble-that all the rioting, all the looting, all the crime taking place and the cop bashing….is the fault of the media."

"And it is!" Richard lifted his hands partially from the desk and laughed. "Make no mistake, I won't lie about that. We _thrive _off all this. Cop-hatred, rioters, looters…it's chaos, but for a cause."

"My family died because of your 'cause'."

"It's war, and every war has casualties Mr. Vega…"

"It's only a war that the media wants, nothing more." David loosened his hold on the gun and curled his lips into a broad smirk. "But you've admitted to enough, and again I'll remind you: I'm a good cop. Not one of the bad. I wanted to make a statement, and I did…"

"You keep saying you're a good cop, but you're threatening my life."

"Am I? Funny how you smear the police so much, but when you need them to save your life, you love them. You're one of the biggest hypocrites." He chuckled once, then frowned at the man. "By the way, check the gun."

Just then a shot rang out and David felt a jolt of pain shooting through his back. He let out a grunt and collapsed to the ground. His eyes turned skyward and he started to smile as the image of his wife and daughters appeared before him.

He could hear shuffling noises and heard Diane exclaim when she grabbed the gun off the desk. "It's unloaded," she declared to the cameras, "He wasn't planning on taking any lives here. He just…wanted to be heard."

This was his justice. Those who took his family had been brought to life, and that included the news media that he held responsible.

David closed his eyes and breathed in as he felt the embrace of his wife and daughters. As consciousness began to fade, he could hear Richard cursing and he could feel the officers on the scene trying to resuscitate him.

_"Let me go,"_ he thought to himself, _"Let me be with my family."_ With his final thoughts, he opened his lips and took his final breath. Sensationalism. The media had gone too far, and he brought them to light. Maybe nothing would be done, or maybe people would open their eyes and realize things were getting out of hand.

For now, or at least to David, none of it mattered any longer.

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><p>Dark but not without it's message. Emotional as well, I think it's been a long time that I've written anything with a genuine message behind it. Well, I hope you enjoyed the oneshot.<p> 


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